Fresh out of West Virginia University, Matthew Peaslee has been a Pirates fan for over two decades. While times have been hard, Peaslee remains a loyalist. He has been to 26 of the 30 MLB ballparks, but PNC Park has always been his summer home. With every slide there will be Pittsburgh Pride!

Monroe gets curtain call in Buc Blowout

RAISE THE JOLLY ROGER…6-5

It was another beautiful day at PNC Park. My second game of the year and every second of it was fantastic. Adorning my Ian Snell jersey with a purpose, as he took the mound for his third start of the season. Surprising enough Snell was very effective. Seven scoreless innings, three strikeouts and only four hits was his stat line in the afternoon contest. While Snell was anything but commanding he got the job done. Giving hitters favorable counts and throwing many pitches in the dirt you could tell there is still work to be done. However, Snell did everything anybody could ask for. He got pitchers to pop out or groundout and shut down the heart of the Braves lineup.

One lineup that was not shut down was that of the Pirates.

Look the poise in that man’s eyes. Monroe jacked two bombs right to the heart of center field, 3-run shots to be exact. Without a doubt Monroe is the biggest power asset on the team. With 16 RBI and 6 homers in spring training, Monroe led the club. I said this man was going to be a threat and needed to get in the lineup. If you don’t believe me go back some pages and check for yourself. Monroe has a sweet swing and connects on good pitches. All he needs is an opportunity.

What concerns me the most is our outfield situation. Make no mistake about it our outfield is great. We have good players who are blossoming (Moss), vets who are solid (McLouth-spelled it right didnt I Jon? and Hinske), guys with something to prove (Morgan and Monroe) and a wildcard who is supposed to be the real deal (Young.) It’s crowded out there. I’m concerned that every player won’t get their fair share and playing time will be limitied for all. While I do believe competition brings out the best in people, it may not be the best idea for the Pirates. We need to have an everyday lineup set in stone. Im not a big fan of the platoon system. It could work for righty-left matchups but other than that I think it sets up for turmoil in the clubhouse.

A 10-0 Pirate win capped off a great day. My good friend Andrew Schuerholz is a Braves fan and it was great to rub it in his face. If the name Schuerholz sounds familiar chances are it is. Andrew is the nephew of Braves VP and former general manager John Schuerholz. Uncle John hooked us up with great seats. Row D right behind home plate. It was cool sitting amongst the hot shots of the MLB. We were right behind a group of scouts from various major league teams. The Marlins, Brewers, Rockies, Dodgers and Blue Jays were all represented in two rows of seats. By witnessing the way the follow and critique the game I came to the conclusion that I want to be a baseball scout.

Each of the scouts had notebooks such as this one. It was a collection of the most extensive baseball data I have ever seen. Each player was evaluated down to the finest detail. Location of pitches, how batters looked at pitches and time between action was all taken down into account. It was amazing how these guys followed the game and knew how the players would do in certain situations. It’s a cool job and something I would love to have more information on.

Once again it was another great day at the best ballpark in America. The sun drenched cty of Pittsburgh looked fabulous as always and added memorable moments I wont soon forget.

The view from our great seats…

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no doubt man i’ll be in section 131 so that’s real close to the bleachers… I don’t know what I’ll have on because all my Pirates stuff is dirty, I’ll probably just rock a hoody and some sweatpants or something, I’ll definitely find you over there though. Let’s hope it stays dry and LETS GO BUCS!

Wow, that’ so cool that you had great seats, and right behind scouts too. I feel like the Red Sox should hire me as a scout. My project players always tend to do well. I liked Brandon Moss on the Sox last year, mostly because he hit a HR in the Japan series that was really important– but still. Don’t the Pirates have the lowest ERA in baseball or something?
Elizabethhttp://redsoxgirl46.mlblogs.com

I have been outside of Bettis’ restaurant many times but have never actually gone in and ate there, there’s nothing but good talk about it around Pittsburgh, I’ll have to hit that up sometime this summer. But yeah it was a rough game, luck for me the Jolly Roger hooked me and my friends up with some nice seats under the 2nd deck where we didn’t get wet. I was wrong about sitting in 131 we were actually in 124. My friend knows the Jolly Roger so he gets us free tickets occasionally, haha. better luck tomorrow, let’s hope Ohlendorf looks better than he did last time :-/

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